Sadly, it's much easier to create a desert than a forest.

I'm not a pessimist, even though I do think awful things are going to happen.

A billion could live off the earth; 6 billion living as we do is far too many, and you run out of planet in no time.

China will soon emit more greenhouse gases than America, but its regime knows if it caps aspirations there will be a revolution.

Humans on the Earth behave in some ways like a pathogenic micro-organism, or like the cells of a tumor.

For each of our actions there are only consequences.

I know that to personalize the Earth System as Gaia, as I have often done and continue to do in this book, irritates the scientifically correct, but I am unrepentant because metaphors are more than ever needed for a widespread comprehension of the true nature of the Earth and an understanding of the lethal dangers that lie ahead.